Learning to Run a Generator in a Heat Wave

Push-button generator

The forecast was for 97 degrees F.

I know for a lot of folks, 97 degrees isn’t a big deal—might even be a cooling trend. And around here, 97 isn’t completely awful, compared to the triple-digit heat dome we experienced 13 months ago.

Still, in our climate, people, animals and plants just aren’t acclimated to the high 90s.

The other evening, facing the next day’s predicted 97-degrees, I popped into the house to bring in the blueberries I’d just picked, when I saw the power was out.

John was away until the following evening. So he wasn’t around to start the generator—a really nice push-button, gasoline-powered model we’d bought about five years ago. Despite being modestly strong for someone my size and age, we got it because I didn’t have the upper-body strength to deal with our existing pull-start machine.

No pull-cord starter!

And John and I both figured there would eventually come a day when he wouldn’t have the necessary get-up-and-go either.

I’m embarrassed to admit it, but for all my preparedness in other areas, I was completely unprepared now. In those five years, I never learned how to operate our generator.

Anyway, there I was, with no power and no John. Of course I know how to push an “On” button. And I was familiar with our in-house circuit box. But I didn’t have a clue about the right way to connect our Gen-Tran system and power up the generator, without blowing out our whole electrical system!

Still, I wasn’t too worried about the outage. I mean, it’s summer! There was no wind, so the problem couldn’t be weather-related, like our wintertime outages. I figured it was just one of those momentary blips in the grid.

But being in the middle of watering the garden and all the berries before the real heat arrived, I had one major, immediate concern. Right away, I strode down the driveway and waded through all the tall bracken fern to the pumphouse.

We’d had a small solar array installed 18 months ago, with battery backup. This design meant the batteries could power the well pump—and the solar panels would feed continually power to the batteries. Unlike the 11 years of power outages John and I had dealt with previously, we now would have water, come what may.

That is, fingers-crossed, if everything was working as it should.

I unlocked the pumphouse door, flipped the light switch and Whew! Lights, plus the lighting display on the inverter was on. Clearly, we were set, waterwise.

But not for our home’s electricity. Besides the pumphouse solar panels, we have a big solar array for our home and shop, but it’s a net-metering system. Which means, the system is connected to the grid. So when the power goes out, you’re out of luck.

While I waited for the power to return, I tried to stay busy. In preparation for the hot day, I was getting as much of the garden and berry patches watered as I could, before the plant-wilting temps the next day.

But the power stayed out. Since we don’t have a cell signal in our corner of the Foothills, we couldn’t call the power company. And I didn’t know if the outage was only at our place, or if the whole neighborhood was out.

A couple of hours went by. Now I was getting worried. Inside the house, it was 82 degrees, and I anxious about the fresh groceries in our filled-to-the-brim fridge—how long could they stay at safe temperatures?

The meat in the deep-freeze concerned me too. And it would be dark in another hour and 20 minutes. I sure didn’t want to be fumbling around with unfamiliar equipment without good lighting. If I had to run the generator, I would have to get up to speed on how to do it.

And fast.

I jumped into the car and made the two minute drive to our closest neighbors—the generous and big-hearted Alan and Gretchen.  Why drive such a short distance, you may ask? Well, they have three dogs at their place, and the pups treat people arriving by car as welcome visitors. People visiting on foot are not.

Come to find out, they were out of power too. We all concluded this was a bigger outage. But our treasured neighbors had one very precious commodity: a landline with an analog phone.

John and I had switched over to Internet phone service months ago, so we no longer had a landline. And you actually need a touch-tone phone to reach the power company’s phone system. But thanks to Alan and Gretchen, I could call John.

He was at his daughter’s house, two states away. I called her number (John didn’t always keep his cell phone on him). Happily, she picked up, and I explained my dilemma. John was out walking the dogs, but he’d be back in 45 minutes.

I thanked her and hung up. The light was fading, but I had our neighbors’ open invitation to come back and try him later.

I stayed busy with more watering and slapping mosquitoes, and returned to Alan and Gretchen’s to phone him again. And he was home! I’d brought pencil and paper, and as he reviewed the steps, I carefully jotted down the directions and details involved.

Gretchen held a little lantern and a headlamp over my shoulder so I could see enough to write. And John, working from memory, had to backtrack a couple of times to retool his directions. But at last, I had things clear in my mind, and after profuse thanks to Alan and Gretchen, I headed home.

From their driveway, I saw our neighborhood bear. But he was across their field, and ambled into the woods as soon as he saw the car.

Once home, I was super-nervous about messing with the main electrical panels. But I had no choice. Almost all our outages generally last anywhere from 12 – 48 hours or longer. And our fridge and freezer food would never go the distance.

I had the rechargeable lantern for light, so it was now or never.

The steps for our generator system are below—your system or the one in your future may be different.

We keep our generator in our shop/garage. Open the garage door for the generator exhaust. John already had the generator positioned right next to the door for easy access and ventilation.

Grab the specialized, super-heavy duty cable that connects the generator with the Gen-Tran system and have it at the ready.

Now the house. Night was falling, but I had my trusty lantern, and the house circuit panel was the easy step. Shut off all the big energy consumers: Hot water heater, heat pump, range, and so forth. I could keep the light circuits on.

Now for the nerve-wracking part. Dealing with the Gen-Tran. Back outside.

Gen-Tran with Warning in Red!

Even opening the panel door was a little tricky, but John had explained how. Nervously, I switched the house circuits off. Luckily, the circuits are designed so you can’t have both the house and the generator circuits on at the same time.

Then I saw the sign on the door. A Very Important Sign. In all caps, so you wouldn’t miss it.

“TURN OFF SOLAR BEFORE TURNING ON GENERATOR”

Well, shoot.

John hadn’t mentioned the solar system. I knew the solar circuit box was just around the corner of the shop, no problem. But it really looked complicated. And I did NOT want to risk doing something wrong and blowing out our inverter!

Solar circuit box

(After all, John and I were in hock for the next 19 years to pay for the whole thing!)

In the car again, this time with my own lantern, and over to Alan and Gretchen’s. I could only hope the third time would be the charm.

By now it was getting quite dark. “I’m so sorry,” I said when they answered the door, and I explained my dilemma. Gretchen took me back to their shop where they kept their landline.

“I can take it from here,” I told her—wanting her and Alan to enjoy the rest of the evening inside. So she returned to their house.

Fortunately, John picked up. He felt a little sheepish about forgetting to mention the solar circuits, but I said, “Well, you haven’t started the generator that many times since we got the system.”

Still really nervous about messing with not one, but two unfamiliar circuit boxes, I was saying my goodbyes—when Gretchen rushed in.

“The power’s back on!” she said joyfully. So John was able to get the good news, and not worry all night.

She and I met Alan out in the driveway, and we shared our elation. They'd heard from another neighbor that a tree had come down on some power lines. The little town about 15 miles away had been completely out of power. 

"No wonder PSE got things back on-line so fast," I said. Not having to rush home, I told them about the bear. Alan asked, “Were you scared?”

“Oh, no,” I said. “I was safe in the car!”

He couldn’t resist teasing me about bears being able to break windshields, and after some relieved laughter all around, it was back home for me, for a very late dinner.

But I had lights. I could take a hot, instead of lukewarm shower. I could even re-watch another episode of Downton Abbey, then go to bed, knowing John would be home the next day—and all would be well at Berryridge Farm.

And you can bet that John is giving me a hands-on tutorial on starting that generator today!

P.S. Here are the rest of the steps to starting a generator with a Gen-Tran system like ours:

Go to solar circuit box and turn off the solar circuits.

Once you’ve got the correct Gen-Tran house circuits off, time to connect the special cable from the generator and plug it in to the Gen-Tran. 

You can check your own connections, but for our system, the “male” end plugs into the generator. The “female” end goes into the Gen-Tran box outlet, which have the “male” prongs.”

Here’s a photo. At left of the outlet is the Gen-Tran circuit box.

Gen-Tran outlet outside

When you’ve got your cable connected, then return to the generator and turn the generator key to “on” and press the ON button.

When the generator starts up, let it run for four or five minutes. This way, you’re letting the generator engine warm up before you put an electric load on it. 

Then, and only then, you go back to the Gen-Tran circuit box, and switch the breakers that connect to generator to “On.”  

Personally, (because I can’t always rely on my memory!) I have typed up the directions and have them handy in a kitchen drawer!